After
the June 12, 2009 presidential election in Iran,
allegations and suspicion of vote fraud designed to favor
the incumbent leader, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Protests began almost immediately after the election
results were announced, and protests have been ongoing
since June 13, 2009. Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah
Khamenei declared the election fair and declared
Ahmadinejad the winner. This announcement only sparked
more protests, as presidential challenger Mir-Hossein
Mousavi continued to claim the election was
rigged.

Similar to other
recent anti-government protests in other nations, the
Iranian protests/uprising, have been variously dubbed
"The Green Revolution," the "Freedom Square Revolution,"
and "The Perisan Awakening." The other "revolutions"
(which were largely peaceful) were in Lebanon (The Cedar
Revolution), Ukraine (The Orange Revolution), and Georgia
(The Rose Revolution).

While
Iran's government is attempting to control the flow of
news out of the country related to the protests, young,
computer and internet-savvy Iranians are getting the
story out past the censors. YouTube and Twitter are the
newest means of sending text, photos, and video of the
government repression to the world. Below is a YouTube
video of the killing of an Iranian woman, Neda Soltani,
in the streets of Tehran during a protest broken up by
the government's Basij militia.

Protests
continued into 2010, with anti-governement activists
taking to the streets on numerous national holidays and
at other times to protest against the governement of
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Most protests continue to
be broken up with violence by the Basij militia and the
police.

The Killing of
Neda Soltani in Tehran

Video of the Iranian girl,
Neda Soltani, being killed by the Basij militia during
protests against the Iranian
government--Warning,
this video shows graphic violence